Darwin in porn shock

[gonzo]

Charles Darwin has sparked his fair share of controversy over the years, but most people would consider him to have been a decent, law abiding sort of chap – respectable even. But just how respectable was he?

Research from the University of Leicester sheds new light on the famous Victorian debates over Darwin’s evolutionary theories - by examining them in relation to the murky underworlds of Victorian pornography, sexual innuendo and free thought.

In Darwin, Literature and Victorian Respectability, Gowan Dawson challenges earlier assumptions about Darwin's unimpeachable respectability and instead reveals, for the very first time, how he faced surprisingly numerous accusations of encouraging sexual impropriety.

"Our familiar image of Darwin as a deeply respectable Victorian gentleman… was something that he and his supporters could not take for granted and had instead to work extremely hard to fashion and maintain.” said Dawson, “This was especially the case when so many of Darwin's theories were predicated on sex and desire.”

Dawson’s book suggests the more disreputable and generally overlooked aspects of nineteenth-century culture, including Victorian pornography, were actually remarkably central to many of the controversies over evolution. In fact, Darwin's sensitivity to attacks on his respectability had some very important implications for his scientific thought, shaping the very development of theories like sexual selection.

Real research, or one man’s attempt to legitimise his sordid obsession with antique erotica?